


I'll Always Pick Up

by friendofspiderman



Series: Fictober 2020 [13]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: Canon Compliant, Ficlet, Fictober, Gen, Guilt, Happy Hogan is a Good Bro, Light Angst, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Sad with a Happy Ending, Uncle Happy Hogan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-17
Updated: 2020-10-17
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:34:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27058792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/friendofspiderman/pseuds/friendofspiderman
Summary: Fictober Prompt #13 - "I missed this"---Happy vows to be there for Peter should he ever come back from The Blip.
Relationships: Happy Hogan & Peter Parker
Series: Fictober 2020 [13]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1953223
Comments: 13
Kudos: 30





	I'll Always Pick Up

No one told Happy that Peter had been dusted. He’d heard it through the grapevine after Tony returned alone.

The kid’s aunt had been dusted, too. In some sick way, Happy was grateful for it. Grateful she didn’t have to suffer her nephew’s loss.

In the first several months after The Blip, Happy and Pepper were so busy smoothing out mess after mess that he’d scarcely had time to think about the people they’d lost. There was little time to feel sorry for themselves while they were talking with the Avengers about possible world-saving solutions, tracking the uptick in crime, and directing money into various charities and memorial funds.

But after five months, Happy began to accept that the new world might be permanent, and they may never get the dusted individuals back.

As he sat on the couch one night after a particularly long day of work, feeling wearier than he’d ever thought possible, his mind drifted to the kid.

Peter, who’d been lost in space. He hadn’t forgotten him, but he hadn’t wanted to think about it, either.

Happy couldn’t talk about it, because Tony _wouldn’t_ talk about it, and he was the only other person left who knew the spider-kid’s true identity.

He unlocked his phone and began scrolling through old voicemails from Peter. He’d saved them all, partly because he was miserable with tech and didn’t know how to delete multiple messages at once, and partly because he’d never stopped feeling guilty for the months he’d spent ignoring the kid when he’d really needed help.

He chose a message from that time and pressed play.

“Hey Happy! Um, here’s my report for tonight—I stopped a grand theft bicycle…”

He listened, head in his hands, to twenty-five voicemails before he was consumed by guilt. 

_Kid, if you called today, I’d pick up in a heartbeat._

—

4.5 years later, Tony brought everyone but himself back.

Peter was grieving, and it was several months post-return before he went out as Spider-Man again. Happy knew the kid wanted space and was capable of taking care of himself, so he wasn’t directly keeping an eye on him anymore. But he’d made it clear that he would always be available if Peter called—he would always pick up.

He was reading in bed one night when Peter took him up on the offer.

“Kid?” He answered, throwing back the covers and swinging his legs to the floor in case he needed to leave. “What’s up, you good?”

“Hey, Happy!” Peter replied. “Yeah I’m good, I just wanted to say hi I guess, cause this still feels—” He cleared his throat. “Well I wanted to tell you what I did tonight on patrol. That okay?”

Happy breathed a sigh of relief.

“Of course, kid. Whatcha got for me?”

“Okay, well, there were these college students out for a walk, and I saw this guy watching them…”

Happy settled back to listen, grinning at Peter’s enthusiastic retellings of a successful night of superhero stuff.

_Oh, kid_. _I missed this._

—

Five months later, Peter was in Europe on a school trip. Happy’d been watching the news and knew he was mixed up in intense battles with elemental monsters, Nick Fury, and some flashy new superhero. Happy hoped the kid could catch a break now that the threats had seemed to die down—he and May had been chatting about Peter’s plan to woo a girl and his need for an _actual_ break from the superhero gig.

When Peter called at 4:00 in the morning a few days into the trip, sounding exhausted and scared and relaying no details apart from the fact that he “messed up” and “needed a ride,” Happy was out the door in five minutes flat and flying a jet to the Netherlands within the hour.

He didn’t think to call May until he was in motion. 

“Thank you for picking him up.” She said anxiously. “Please keep me updated, okay?”

“Of course, May.” He’d replied, still unwilling to admit to her or to himself that Peter had wormed his way into his heart and that he’d do just about anything for the Parkers.

The quinjet was the fastest mode of transportation he had available, but the journey still felt unbearably long as he remembered the trepidation in Peter’s voice. 

He’d failed the kid when he was in trouble nearly seven years ago, and he wasn’t going to let that happen again.

_Hang tight, kid. I’m on my way_.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading <3


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